"Sorin Castle?" Andesha repeated the name in a low voice. She was not familiar with the names of the places in Cecil, but she had a vague impression of the name. After a moment of rummaging through her memories, she finally found the corresponding information about Sorin Castle. "Ah, I've heard of this name before … … It seems to be in the Holy Plains … …" Andesha muttered in confusion.
"Strictly speaking, it's on the border between the Plains of the Holy Spirit and the Eastern Region. Of course, it's part of the Plains of the Holy Spirit from an administrative point of view," Marian said with a smile. "It's a place full of miracles."
"Miracles … I remember that the Plains of the Holy Spirit had been turned into a wasteland during the civil war in Ansu, and Sorin Castle was the most damaged area. It …" Andesha could not help but whisper, but her words were quickly interrupted by the new scenery outside the window. Her attention was completely attracted to the wilderness outside.
She saw a huge tower in the distance. The tower was built with metal and man-made stone, and it was even more magnificent than the communication tower in Winterwolf Fort. Magical light flowed on the surface of the tower, and a huge crystal device was slowly rotating on the top of the tower under the support of some kind of mechanical structure. A series of auxiliary facilities could be seen around the tower, and it looked like a small fortress.
She then saw a cluster of buildings that looked like a village in the distance. A large number of new houses were arranged in rows, and their roofs shone brightly under the bright sun. The flattened land was like a giant brown carpet around the village, and there were neat and wide roads between the fields, as well as neatly arranged street lamps on both sides of the roads.
The train sped through the winter wilderness, but the winter wilderness welcomed the visitors with the attitude of a new life.
Andesha's remaining eye widened as she looked at the scenery outside the window in astonishment. The scenery was completely different from what she had seen from the intelligence reports and what she had imagined in her mind.
"Are we really heading towards Sorin Castle?" She finally could not help but ask, "Is this the war zone that was contaminated by the Divine Calamity?"
Marian smiled. "Yes, without a doubt. In fact, we have passed the last checkpoint of the Eastern Region. What you see now is the land of the Plains of the Holy Spirit. Sorin Castle is just ahead, and you will see it at the end of the next mountain pass. You will be even more surprised when you see it."
"… I thought I would see more ruins and wreckage here," Andesha muttered softly, as if she was talking to herself. "This is different from what I imagined …"
"We rebuilt this place. General Margarita and the construction corps led by her, the joint reconstruction team led by the minister of agriculture, and the reconstruction volunteers who returned from all over the Plains of the Holy Spirit. Hundreds of thousands of people worked together to rebuild everything you see. We also built a lot of new things, such as the tower we just passed and the surrounding buildings. That is a secondary node of Sorin, part of the magic network in the Plains of the Holy Spirit. It has a high-power transceiver that can directly connect to the Sorin hub," Sister Marian said proudly. "In addition, the railway we are now on is also part of the construction project last year.
"Of course, the ruins you mentioned are still there. After all, the Holy Spirit Plains is so big that we can't rebuild everything in such a short time. There were still large areas in Boulder City and the Fertile Woodlands waiting to be revived. Every month, the highest government office would send more engineering teams and resources to those areas. Now, about half of those areas had been restored. But that place is very far from here, and we won't be able to see it on this journey. "
Andesha listened to all of this in surprise, and many scenes that she had never imagined appeared in her mind. She wanted to ask more questions, but suddenly, a train whistle came from the front and interrupted her.
The train whistled sharply, and the loud sound echoed between the hills and the plains. Andesha felt the ground under her body shake a few times, and the train drove out of a relatively gentle mountain pass. The small mountain that blocked her line of sight was quickly left behind, and the vast plains entered her eyes.
A patch of green that shouldn't have appeared in the winter quickly caught her attention and occupied her vision.
It was a tree crown that covered the sky, and a green city that seemed to be floating above the plains. A plant, a … … miracle that challenged the imagination of mortals.
"What is that?!" Andesha even forgot the pain in her upper body for a moment, and subconsciously raised her arm to point outside. Her face was full of astonishment.
"That is where we are going," Marian said. "Thorin Castle, what you see is the 'Great Tree of Thorin'. It covers the entire Thorin region, and the original castle is now under the tree crown, occupying only a small area in the east. Our train will directly enter the outer area of the tree crown, and next to the old castle is the newly built station. "
"The Great Tree of Thorin … …" Andesha muttered to herself in shock, and the churning thoughts in her mind finally calmed down a little, and some information appeared in her mind. "I've heard of this name before, in some documents … … and in Cecil's newspapers and magazines. I know that there is such a 'tree' that grows out of the ground, and it's as big as a castle … … but I always thought that it was an exaggeration … … "
"That's a euphemism. In fact, it was bigger than any castle since half a year ago," Marian shook her head. "But now its growth has slowed to a halt, and in theory, it will not continue to expand no matter how much it grows. Otherwise, we will really have to worry about the whole plains being covered by its tree crown … … Although it looks quite impressive to me, the people in the Ministry of Agriculture do not think so."
Andesha looked at the scenery outside the window with the mentality of witnessing a miracle, and listened to Marian's narration. Suddenly, she noticed a detail in Marian's vocabulary. "'She'? You mean that tree … … "
"Oh, the information you read did not mention the Great Tree of Thorin as' she '?" Marian raised her eyebrows. "Well, it's understandable. After all, not everyone knows about Madam Bertilla's situation … … including those reporters and scholars who have written numerous articles about the Great Tree of Thorin."
Andesha was still confused. "… …?"
There were too many things that she did not understand in Cecil's place.
… …
At the top of the Great Tree, a cluster of vibrant vines grew out from the branches and leaves, and in the midst of the flowers and vines, the figure of a young woman gradually condensed into form.
Bertilla controlled her human form and came to the edge of the canopy flat area. On the highest platform of the Holy Spirit Plains, she looked into the distance in the direction of the boundary between the mountains and the plains.
In fact, her gaze was meaningless. Ever since she became a plant, her perception was no longer that of a human. She perceived the world through the huge system of roots and branches that spread to the sky, and the human form that she had mimicked for herself did not have vision at all. But most of the time, Bertilla was still used to this kind of 'gaze', which gave her a sense of 'fullness'.
The artificial brain hidden deep in the canopy was working vigorously, and the simulated neural signals maintained the stability of Bertilla's personality. She took a deep breath in her mimicked body, and the vigorous photosynthesis in the canopy made her happy.
She 'saw' a magical train coming from the east and had entered the canopy's edge area. The vines near the station received the signal and were transmitting the image to her.
The sound of footsteps approached from behind the mimicry body. The shoes stepped on the hard surface of the leaves and made a sound as if someone was stepping on concrete. Bertila didn't need to turn around to know who was standing behind him.
"She's here." A slightly hoarse voice came from Bertilla's wooden body. "Don't you want to go and see?"
The middle-aged man standing behind Bertilla was silent for two seconds before he broke the silence with mixed emotions. "… … I don't know how to face her."
"You have to face it," Bertilla said slowly. "She will stay here for a long time, and you can't run away from all this forever."
Bard twitched the corner of his mouth. "… … Who caused me to be in this situation?"
"… … We agreed not to talk about this."
Bard smiled silently and shook his head gently. "Anyway, the generals at the frontline and the great governors in the government office have really given me a big problem. When I first heard the news, I was in a daze. Even now, I still feel like I'm dreaming."
"I can imagine — you were in the middle of your eavesdropping job when someone suddenly called you out and told you that your daughter had become the first batch of prisoners of war and would be sent to Sorin Castle in a few days. Just imagine, I know how confused you were at that time." Bertilla's slightly stiff voice had a hint of ridicule. "Aren't you worried? I heard that she was badly injured. "
Bard was silent for a moment before he whispered, "She's a soldier. Some things are her duty."
"She's a soldier, but you're a father. Her duty does not conflict with your worries." Bertilla shook her head and turned to face Bard Wendell. "After you're done with the things at hand, you'd better go and have a look. You have to face it sooner or later. I believe that with a few days to prepare, you should have thought about how to meet your daughter. "
"… … This is not like you." Bard glanced at the former 'pope of All Ends' in front of him. "In the more than ten years I've known you, 'Madam Bertilla' has always been the embodiment of mean, cunning and dangerous."
Bertilla did not respond, and Bard did not care. He just shook his head and brought up another matter. "I'm here to report a situation."
"A situation? What situation? "
"This is the recent record left by the monitoring team." Bard handed over a stack of documents in his hand. "We still haven't tracked the signal, but we found some other traces, which may be of some value."
In fact, Bertilla did not need to use her "eyes" to read the information Bard brought her, but she still reached out and took the papers. She carefully placed them in front of her eyes. After all, life required a sense of ritual, and a plant was no exception. Her "eyes" swept across the forms and records on the papers, and her expression gradually became serious.
She wasn't actually an expert in magic network communication, signal science, or cryptography, but ever since she had successfully deciphered the geometric patterns from the mysterious signal, her value in this area had been valued by the upper echelons. Now, if the monitoring team found any valuable clues, they would submit them to the higher-ups and give her a copy as well.
"These weak noises that appear randomly are not normal waves in the magic network … Is that what you mean?" Bertilla shook the documents in her hand and looked at Bard.
"That's right. We have compared all the waveforms, and the noises should not appear in the magic network."
"These noises are very weak and chaotic. I can't decipher them at all. Even the 'dot-trace solution' I found before doesn't work." Bertila pinched his chin. "What do you think?"
"We now suspect that the signal has been broadcasting continuously, covering our transceiver every minute and every second. These noises are the traces left behind by it. But for some reason, the signal is severely interfered and weakened most of the time, so we can't decipher its content at all. We didn't even notice its existence before we increased the sensitivity of the transceiver." Bard slowly shared his and his colleagues' thoughts. "Starting from this line of thought, the signal that we suddenly received several times before was actually not a sudden 'appearance' of the signal, but a temporary loophole in something that causes interference and shielding effect …"
Bertilla's face could not make any vivid expressions, but there was still a trace of seriousness in her subtle facial changes. "This sounds … a little unsettling. Has the information been submitted to the imperial capital? "
"It has been sent. Master Kamel has personally replied that he will take this matter seriously. At the same time, he will also coordinate the work teams in Ten Forest City, Winter Fort Academy, and various monitoring stations in Louen to try to find evidence of the existence of these noises." Bard nodded. "If the noises are found everywhere, then our guess will be further confirmed."
Bertilla did not speak for a while. After a dozen seconds of thinking, she nodded slightly.
"If there is nothing else, I will go back first," Bard said to Bertilla. "The monitoring station is still waiting for my reply."
Bertilla nodded. Bard turned and walked to the elevator not far away. But just as he took a few steps, Bertilla suddenly stopped him. "Wait a minute."
"Is there anything else?"
"Andesha Wendell has been transferred to the west building of the old castle," Bertilla said, looking at Bard's back. "It will be her exclusive 'recuperation area'. If you want to visit her, Margarita and I can help arrange it."
Bard's back was facing Bertilla. He neither answered nor left. He stood there for a long time. Finally, he just nodded gently and continued to walk in the direction of the elevator.
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